SOCCER: MacMillan has created a legacy of her own

By BRIAN HIRO - Staff Writer | Tuesday, March 4, 2008 11:04 AM PST ∞

Whenever Shannon MacMillan is in need of inspiration in her new line of work, all she has to do is look up.

There, hanging from the middle of a wall in the office she occupies as a first-year assistant coach for the UCLA women's soccer team, is a collage honoring the memory of Clive Charles. A photo of Charles, sporting an afro, playing for the Portland Timbers of the old North American Soccer League. A photo of Charles with his arms around MacMillan and Tiffeny Milbrett, the two most famous products of his long, illustrious tenure as the men's and women's soccer coach at the University of Portland.

Most touching, a photo of Charles lovingly embracing the national championship trophy the Pilots' women won in 2002, a fitting capstone for a man who would die the next year after a protracted battle with prostate cancer.

The U.S. soccer community still remembers Charles as one its most influential coaches. To MacMillan, though, he was so much more.

He was the person who discovered the San Pasqual High graduate out of the La Jolla Nomads soccer club. He was the surrogate father for a quiet, timid girl who became estranged from her parents at a young age. He was the mentor who helped MacMillan develop into the best female player in college soccer by her senior year at Portland and, eventually, into one of the best players in the world.

Tonight, when the 33-year-old MacMillan is inducted into the Breitbard Hall of Fame, Charles will be with her in spirit ---- as he is for every day of her life.

"I walked away from the University of Portland knowing that my career truly started there," MacMillan said recently, "and that that man helped me grow and learn and afforded me the opportunity to become who I am."

Who she is, is a member of the golden generation of women's soccer in America, the bunch led by Mia Hamm, Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy that won the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, won the 1999 Women's World Cup and, in the process, spawned a professional league and an army of pigtailed disciples.

Who she was, pre-Charles, was a gifted striker with little self-confidence or sense of direction. Growing up in Escondido, MacMillan found refuge from a difficult upbringing in soccer. She has always been vague on the reason for her fallout with her parents, except to say they were non-supportive and her family was dysfunctional.

That's when Charles came on the scene. Seeking better competition, he brought his club team down from Portland in the early 1990s to play the Nomads, whom MacMillan led within one victory of a national club title in '92.

"Once they met, it was all over," said Derek Armstrong, who helped coach that Nomads' team and is still with the program. "She knew where she was going (to college) after the first meeting. He took her in at an age when she needed that kind of a coach."

What about Charles so impressed MacMillan?

"Just how much he cared," she said. "He always said, 'We're fortunate to play soccer, but at the same time, are you going to walk away a good person?' "

MacMillan blossomed as a person and a player under Charles' tutelage. A four-time All-American at Portland, she teamed with Milbrett to form the country's most lethal scoring duo and put the tiny Catholic college on the soccer map. As a senior in 1995, MacMillan captured the Hermann Award, the soccer equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.

She was pegged as the next U.S. women's national team star, but when she was left off the initial roster for training camp leading up to the '96 Olympics, she pondered quitting soccer. Charles convinced her to persevere, and she not only worked her way back on to the team, but also emerged as a starter and the Americans' leading scorer in Atlanta with three goals in five matches, including the game-winner in sudden-death overtime in the semifinals against rival Norway.

With one swing of her foot, the shy girl from Escondido had become a household name, and her stature only grew three years later during the momentous Women's World Cup in the United States. It wasn't an ideal role for a player accustomed to never leaving the field, but MacMillan achieved acclaim as the U.S. team's "super sub," coming off the bench to provide an offensive jolt.

When Chastain famously ripped off her shirt after the Americans edged China in the title game in front of more than 90,000 screaming fans at the Rose Bowl, the team's place ---- and MacMillan's ---- in history was secured.

"The legacy for that whole group was the '99 World Cup," said Aaron Heifetz, the longtime press officer of the U.S. women's national team. "For those 20, they kind of carried the banner for what was to come."

The chief byproduct was the Women's United Soccer Association, which rode in on a wave of World Cup momentum in 2001. MacMillan was one of the league's founding members, and she had to pinch herself when the WUSA assigned her ---- along with Foudy and Joy Fawcett ---- to the hometown San Diego Spirit.

Like many of her former teammates, MacMillan still mourns the death of the league after the 2003 season. Though she retired from soccer in ‘06, she insists that she'd be playing if the Spirit still existed.

"It was like a college environment minus the classes," said MacMillan, who now lives in Cardiff. "How many times we stood out on that field saying, 'Wow, we're getting paid to play soccer. What a feeling.' And San Diego really embraced the Spirit."

There would be more highs and lows. Her sensational 2002 campaign with the national team that earned her player of the year honors from U.S. Soccer. The torn anterior cruciate ligament she suffered in a Spirit game in May '03, which seemed certain to torpedo any hope of playing in the World Cup that fall. Her nearly miraculous recovery from the injury to earn a spot on the roster. And, right in the middle of her comeback, the death of Charles, her guiding light.

"It was a very emotional, powerful year for me all around," she said. "Definitely a growing experience."

April Heinrichs, the U.S. women's coach at the time, considered MacMillan an integral part of the national team. But when Greg Ryan, Heinrichs' assistant, took over in 2005, MacMillan began to see the writing on the wall. She was in the player pool the whole year, but Ryan used her for only two matches ---- both as a substitute.

She retired the following September, ranked seventh in U.S. history in international games (176), goals (60) and points (173).

"I always said, 'When I'm not enjoying it, I'll hang up the cleats,' and I definitely wasn't enjoying it that last bit," MacMillan said. "... But I was incredibly lucky to be a part of that team for 12 years. I feel blessed."

MacMillan said she hasn't ruled out playing in the new pro league, called Women's Professional Soccer, which will debut next spring. For now, though, she's focused firmly on coaching. She started a series of soccer camps for girls ages 8-18 in 2006 and was hired by UCLA last July after being passed over for the women's head job at San Diego State.

In her first season, MacMillan helped the Bruins go 20-2-2 and reach the College Cup, the soccer equivalent of the Final Four.

"She's a person whom people naturally migrate to," UCLA head coach Jillian Ellis said. "Every person she meets, she manages to touch in some way."

Just like Clive.

Contact staff writer Brian Hiro at b_hiro@hotmail.com. Comment at sports.nctimes.com.